The Road to Success – A Hispanic Business Owner’s Perspective

The Road to Success – A Hispanic Business Owner’s Perspective

MHCC Kicks off the year strong, with its first Tercer Jueves (Third Thursday) event on January 16, at the AIAG offices, Southfield, Michigan. The session highlighted the outstanding diversity of the members and their resilience by participating despite the inclemency of a Michigan winter storm only hours prior to the event. The evening was a great success! The attendees were a diverse mix of business professionals listening to a panel of well-established Hispanic entrepreneurs sharing their perspective on the Road to Success.

Brenda Arbeláez, Paco Beltran and Lermit Diaz (represented by Fabiana Diaz) infused the audience with the positive and cheerful attitude you can only find in a successful entrepreneur. Each of the speakers come from a different country in the Latin American hemisphere and each speaker had a great story of three steps forward and two steps back, but throughout the entire panel presentation there was a common denominator: TENACITY.

Brenda Arbeláez, President, PALS INTERNATIONAL

Brenda Arbeláez had many choices when she left Colombia, but she chose the United State and Michigan to start her new life. Through her journey in the business community, she saw a real need for good communication and cultural understanding leading her to create her translations company. And when times proved challenging, as they always do when starting a new business, she remained positive and her creative thinking found a way to start new business opportunities. Listening to Brenda’s journey is a true inspiration – that everything is possible. Brenda Arbeláez, President, PALS INTERNATIONAL explained by saying:

As a Latina business owner, it was a great honor to be a panelist and provide my perspective on ‘The Road to Success.’ Offering exceptional translation services, language and cultural training to global companies has always been my passion. For over thirty years, PALS INTERNATIONAL continues to grow and broaden our scope through networking events and partnerships with great organizations like the Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. PALS INTERNATIONAL looks forward to the continued relationship with MHCC and their members.

Paco Beltran, Director of Business Development, Peninsula Plastics

Paco Beltran has been there and done that! His passion for business has taken him to several countries and now he’s ready to cement his business in Michigan. As a partner at an already established plastic thermoformer and 3D foam die cut company, Paco is bringing innovation and growth thanks to his multicultural business experience. Paco Beltran, Director of Business Development, Peninsula Plastics stated:

Since we started going to the Tercer Jueves events in 2012, the amount of business opportunities and group of friends we made has skyrocketed. Now as a panelist for the January 16th event, we were able to share our success stories while at the same time open new doors that will allow us to keep growing our returnable packaging and 3D foam die-cut product businesses. Everyone at Peninsula Plastics thanks you for giving us this opportunity.

Fabiana Diaz

Our third panelist, Lermit Diaz, puts the icing on the cake when it comes to tenacity. He was delayed by the winter storm, coming back from Los Angeles, California that afternoon, and arranged for his daughter, Fabiana Diaz, to step up to the plate. Fabiana, a U of M, Ann Arbor student, proudly represented her father by delivering his cross-Atlantic journey in business from Venezuela to Chicago, back to Venezuela and finally landing in Michigan. Fabiana stated:

As seen on Thursday January 16th, this particular Tercer Jueves, the Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has opened few potential doors to SCTools. It is amazing to see the amount of opportunity and diversity the networking perceives. I was honored with the chance to be directly involved and take part in this meeting as a panelist. I along with SCTools look forward to attending future Tercer Jueves events, as well as the golf outing, and the economic forum breakfast.

Camilo Suero, Executive Director,

MHCCJanuary’s Tercer Jueves event was a great beginning to a year of exciting Third Thursday events. Camilo Suero, Executive Director of the Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce expressed:

I believe in the mission of the Chamber and the efforts we make to empower our minority business community to position itself for increased opportunities. Our three speakers; Brenda Arbeláez, Paco Beltran, and Lermit Diaz are great example of talent, diversity and successful business professions in the Chamber and I’m proud of our membership for being the living examples of prosperity driven businesses.